Archive

It’s the eve of Polling Day and I cannot believe how I’m feeling – like a student (that I am) going into the biggest most difficult examination in the morning. I’ve had to tune off the tele with all the news, and close the Twitter and Facebook tabs on my browser. I needed to relax and take my mind off the “big exam” tomorrow so I decided to read all about Naomi Campbell’s “extreme beauty regime” as revealed in the interview she gave Oprah Winfrey and followed up in this Guardian article. The distraction paid off as I picked up a gem of a quote. Apparently Kate Moss said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Wow. I’ve been so caught up with the GE2010 I’ve completely missed what the real movers and shakers are up to! Good thing it’ll all be over tomorrow. Now to find out what tv cookery showswe actually want to see….interesting indeed.

In response to my last post of 18 July (which feels like an eternity away), I did not get the chance to even start the recording of the English translation of the Qur’an. This rather saddens me, but not one to mull in regret, I look forward now to what’s to come.

I flew back into London 7th August, and now sit in some lovely summer sun. Quite a change from 40-degree intense scorching sun on my face.

A former colleague who is still with Islamonline.net and in Cairo wrote and asked “Do you miss Cairo?”. Bibi-Aisha, let’s see:

2. I miss everyone saying “in sha Allah” every ten seconds, and me saying it back to them every 20 seconds (or so…)

3. I miss being able to just get into a taxi to get to wherever I want to get to and knowing that I could well afford it

4. I miss hearing the sounds of the adhaan five times a day, regardless of the vocal talents of the muezzin

5. I miss taking for granted that God, religion, and family are central to everyone’s values and that these are never ever far away

6. I miss fatta and knuckles soup from al-Omda

Bibi-Aisha, that’s all I can come up with for now! We have a saying in Malay that goes “buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih”, and with that in mind I shall take away with me the good and edge out the bad from the back of my head.

I shall continue to blog, especially while I go through my MBA in Islamic Banking and Finance. I am very much looking forward to that, and in sha Allah I will be able to put the knowledge to some good use! I will try my darnest to blog at least once a week from now on, so watch this space!

Welcome to ThinkingMuslim – the blog. We seek to cultivate a spirit of Islam that is subtly bold, lively, curious, questioning, open, engaging & diverse; a spirit based on knowledge, learning, dialogue, shared values & heritage, pride & love of Islam, God & Prophet. We opened our online store in July 2008, and todate we are very humbled to have reached many in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, France, South Africa, Australia, Denmark, Malaysia, Norway & Trinidad. In terms of our designs, we draw from and are influenced by Islam & Muslims, primarily using the Qur’an & Hadith collections as springboards for thought & conceptualisation.

On our blog, we re-print articles that we have written and that have first been published elsewhere on the internet. We write about and comment on interests, issues and concerns affecting Islam, and Muslims worldwide.